When was the last time a store gave you something that had lasting value? Not perfume samples or recipe magazines, which are nice, but transient in our lives. We mean something with lasting value. There were a couple of things that were giveaways in a fresh to market vintage post a couple weeks ago, and we have another one this week, the Red Wing stoneware beater jar. If we were given a piece like that for being loyal customers of Peters & Backeberg, “the store ahead where your dollars have more cents,” we would drive all the way from the east coast to South Dakota every time we went marketing.
If you’ve been to trade shows or other events recently, you know the amount of useless tat being handed out hoping to generate brand awareness is staggering. It’s all small inexpensive plastic things we take because they’re free and they’re being handed to us. The majority go home to live in our junk drawers, until we clean that drawer out every decade or so, and at that point, they hit the bin. It’s discouraging on so many levels.
We can’t remember the last time we got something of useful value handed to us at a conference or a store. Can we please bring back the days when if we shopped a certain number of times, we earned a platter? Or when our bank handed out plastic rain bonnets in handy little pouches? Or we got trading stamps to paste in books that would eventually be cashed in for a set of tv trays?
If this seems ranty, you’re right. Sorry about that. But we’re speaking up for vintage dealers in the future. When an enterprising vintage dealer opens shop in 2044, what sort of promotional products will we have left for them? Will there be a market for vintage stress balls and tiny ice scrapers? We’re not in the prediction game, but we don’t see it happening.
Okay, rant over, please continue to the non-whiny portion of our broadcast, the parade of fresh to market vintage…
Pair of Red Bonnet Christmas Angels
I don’t know if you share this behavior with me. I want it to be warm, and maybe even hot, when I am freezing my socks off in snowy Massachusetts every winter. Now that it is hotter than Hades, I am nostalgic and fond of the cold, snowy days that I disliked only months ago. So now I will put these sweet little angels on show to perhaps give you a little shiver of excitement that Christmas is only five months away!
Two Christmas Angels, $61.99
-Mary Ellen, Aunt Hatties Attic
Red Wing Stoneware Beater Jar
Red Wing beater jars have been a classic country store giveaway for 100+ years. The term “beater jar” refers to the rounded inside bottom, which makes it perfect for whisking eggs or salad dressings. If you’re a collector of good old American stoneware and happen to be in the upper Midwest, the Pottery Museum of Red Wing looks like a great place to stop.
Vintage Store Advertising Crock, Winner SD, $95
-Linda, Selective Salvage
Root Beer Bakelite Earrings
Bakelite remains one of the most collected forms of vintage plastic jewelry. These root beer brown earrings are an example of the simple forms bakelite was originally made in. There are current artists creating fabulous carved and highly decorated jewelry. The prices reflect the talent and artistry that go into each piece. For the new collector, vintage bakelite is a great reasonably priced way to begin a collection. If you’re an Instagram fan, check out the hashtag #thedailybake for some amazing bakelite.
Root Beer Bakelite Earrings, $29.95
-Pam, Vintage Renude
1970s Hernard 3-D Title Letter Set
If you were making films in the 70s, you were doing it with a camera and not a phone. And the question of how to include a title was indeed a good question, because you also weren’t editing on your phone or laptop. That’s where these little letters came in handy. With reusable adhesive backs, you could layout your title, film it, and put the letters back on the sheets and store them away for your next movie. Ingenious. I love everything about this letter set. I can think of a dozen ways they could be used for art projects, starting with adding text to videos.
Hernard 3-D Title Letter Set, $55.
-Laurie, NextStage Vintage
If we had to pick between a root beer float and those root beer bakelite earrings, we would be all in on the earrings. Unless it was really hot and we were hungry. And the wee Christmas angels are a terrifying reminder that now is a good time to start squirreling away things for people on our list, particularly if we are shopping for vintage things.
Less terrifying is this reminder that if you subscribe to our email newsletter, you’ll get one email a week with links to all our posts. That’s way less terrifying than FOMO–fear on missing out on a post we wrote about your absolute favorite vintage thing or something vintage you’ve always wondered about.
